Picks: Power Trip, Bathsheba, Aseethe

Those of you with a finger on the pulse of new metal releases probably aren’t surprised to see the absence of Suicide Silence’s self-titled album in this week’s Picks. But you might be shocked to learn that at least one of us likes it. Kind of. A bit. Maybe. Anyway…on with the really good stuff.

If you’re likely to be excited by the music of Dallas crossover beasts Power Trip, the chances are you’ve already heard about Nightmare Logic. It’s the talk of the scene and justifiably so. Thrash metal hasn’t turned out a ton of great albums in the last few years, but its pockets of success have been overlooked anyway. That won’t be the case here. Nightmare Logic is packed with breakneck riffing, relentless power, and aggression to match any branch of extreme music you’d care to name. Power Trip’s second album is superb from start to finish, and is littered with irresistible, screeching lead guitar for good measure. Metal lives.

Poor old Bathsheba. This early in 2017, being a melodic yet doomy Belgian metal band with a hauntingly brilliant female vocalist is just bound to draw comparisons to Oathbreaker. To our ears there are stylistic similarities, but also a very important distinguishing feature: where Oathbreaker’s sound is emotional and fragile, Bathsheba’s is unwavering. It’s bold and empowering, anchored by an odd little 90s nuance despite Servus being in every sense a zeitgeist metal album. It’s made up of six long songs, the best of which are the most expansive. ‘Manifest’ is like a drunken conversation with your best mate at 4am.

Sometimes nothing quite hits the spot like a viscous, uncompromising and impenetrable chunk of mid-paced doom metal. Hopes Of Failure, the second full-length from Iowa trio Aseethe, is right on the money. It’s full of deathy drone and is possessed of unspeakable darkness throughout. The riffing is gloriously massive and yet almost more pulse than rhythm. This record delivers everything doom metal should, from the minimalist vocals to the boundless atmosphere generated in the imagination by an aural bleakness that never lets up.